Saturday, August 31, 2013

Getting no sleep can cause seizures. That is why I thought this job was going to be a blessing. The interview said "NO CALL". The schedule was getting worse. The boss was looking for anything to sign you up for. Come to find out, the boss was going out with one of the people that I worked with. CRAZY!!

What crazier was that I didn't pull over in time. I was in a neighborhood on the way to work. Has anyone ever ran a car into a house? I did. Ha,Ha. No I didn't laugh. I only hit the porch. The house was also for sale. The house was going under contract that day also. I called my boss and told him what had done. Believe it or not, He laughed. HE LAUGHED!! There is another twist to the story. My in-laws bought the car!

Since I couldn't take call because of losing sleep. I started working a few hours Saturday mornings. The other technicians agreed with this. Thank you Lord!

Three years had past after my surgery. Guess what, I started having my "sick feeling". If you haven't read previous blogs, I get an "aura" before I have a seizure. The kind I have are Complex Petit Mal Seizures. I stare for 15-30 seconds and sometimes shake my right hand. The staring time is just long enough to have a wreck. The "aura" can sometimes last long enough to pull off the side of the road in time not to wreck. That is still not safe. That one year of hell that I put everyone through wasn't worth anything. I didn't even remember my daughter's two year old birthday or Christmas.

I think I went through withdrawal. My seizures were not as bad or as often. I was just mad. My husband finally talked me into seeing another neurologist closer to home. Again, she sent me to another surgeon to have another procedure. This procedure is where a Vagal Nerve Stimulator or like a pace maker for the brain helps keep extra brain waves cause my seizures.

Again, guess what. The surgeon looked at my MRI and CT scan. The surgeon didn't take everything. WHAT?? HE DID NOT TAKE EVERYTHING??? I didn't hear anything after that. I just cried while being mad at the same time.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Now it is time to open another door. A job that is closer to home, no call, and getting paid while learning a new ultrasound modality. After performing general and OB/GYN ultrasound for 6 years and having to learn something new, I was excited and hesitant. You scan with your left hand because the patient is facing towards you. I'm right handed. The manager hired another person that had to be trained. I wasn't alone. Thank you Lord. That made me feel less hesitant because there was someone there without any ultrasound background.
After I worked my notice, HALLELUJAH, this was the last night driving 45 minutes home. Unfortunately I wasn't going to miss anyone. Was that because of the change in my personality due to the surgery? After all I was there for five years. They probably felt the same after the way I had changed.
Wow, it only took me 25 minutes to get to work! Now it's time to go in and try to remember new names. That was also a problem after my surgery. The echo lab didn't have much space to work in. To save time and be able to get all the patients scanned that had a requisition. We had to do portables. That is where we pushed the heavy ultrasound machines to the patient's room for the study.
The hospital where I went to work was affiliated with other outpatient offices. The staff would go to two of those outpatient offices. After a couple of weeks, I got to scan with another technologist at one site. He taught me a lot. There wasn't anyone to stand in front of the screen except me. I would scan after him to see if I could get the same images. He would also quiz me. Pretty soon he would be getting paid to sit back and relax while I was scanning. That was fine with me. I enjoyed doing echocardiograms. I'm not sure why, but my bad side from after the surgery was finally starting to change.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Working 11:00a - 8:00p, well...I liked sleeping in. I had more time with my daughter. She was two years old then. It was odd picking her up from the hospital's child care that late. She was the only child there then. Of course instead of taking a cigarette break when I came to work, they went to lunch! Why? I didn't know what was going on in the department when they left. My luck the ER would go crazy. After changing my schedule, the supervisor changed the patient appointment time slots. The time slots for two techs in the morning before me coming in were scheduled one patient per hour. Now, after they left at 4:00 in the afternoon I had patients every 30 minutes. EXCUSE ME!! ONE ULTRASOUND TECH patients every 30 minutes scheduled, not including ER or inpatients that had to be done that day! That made me hit the boiling point.
I don't know if I mentioned after the surgery I called myself "the other Roxanne". I know I mentioned not remembering Birthdays and Holidays, but I was also a MONSTER! I don't know if anybody else had that happen to them after brain surgery, but it's awful. Thank God it only lasted for around a year and a half. I have a wonderful husband to stay with me and put up with that.
After working those hours I finally found a position that was closer to home and NO CALL!
Along with no call I will be trained to do echocardiograms!